Yep. That was the big gaffe. If the Sabres had handled him properly, he would've gotten his 9 games and gone right back to the Q, where he would still be tearing it up, and most of this "wow, what a bust" talk would have no reason to exist.
I still maintain that I think he could develop in a very sheltered 3rd line role in the NHL, because he did show some progress up with Buffalo, even if he wasn't lighting the world on fire. But the trouble there is Buffalo doesn't really have a way to provide that kind of role with our roster. Our top 2 forward lines are Moulson/Hodgson/Stafford and Ennis/Leino/Ott; no line there capable of going head to head with other teams' top lines on a nightly basis to provide that shelter to the lower lines. And the bottom 2 lines -- Foligno/Girgensons/Flynn and Scott/McCormick/Tropp -- are clearly chip, chase, and cycle style checking lines, where Grigorenko wouldn't fit in without radically altering his game anyway.
I'm actually beginning to side with some of the Russian posters who insist he would've been better off if he never went to the CHL. If he had gone the KHL route, he would've been able to develop at his own pace and then come over to North America as an NHL player, rather than getting caught in the crappy situation he is.